


Poseidon

by Scylla87



Category: Prison Break
Genre: Angst, CIA, Canon Divergence, Gen, Intrigue, Retelling of Season 5
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-10-25 23:00:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17734286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla87/pseuds/Scylla87
Summary: A rookie agent gets presented with the opportunity to help bring down one of the biggest threats to the CIA: Poseidon. (Basically a retelling of season five from the point of view of the CIA.)





	1. The New Boss

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that I have been playing with for awhile. It is kind of hard to explain in a way that won't be spoilery. This is going to have a lot of original characters, but we will see characters that we know as well. For all intents and purposes, assume that everything that happened in season five happened, but there will be other things that happen as well. Most events that we know of are mostly going to be referred to but not directly shown. Again, it's hard to explain. This chapter is kind of the set-up for the whole story. I went ahead and rated this Mature because I think there may be violence at some point, and I am sure I have forgotten characters that will appear. I will update tags as they come up.
> 
> Let me know what you think.

Chapter 1: The New Boss

Special Agent Milo Murdock took a deep breath as he turned the corner and saw the office looming in front of him. He hated performance reviews. He had only been an agent for a couple of years, but in the time he had worked for the CIA, he had come to loathe the Office of Internal Affairs. But then again, who didn’t? The office had a new Deputy Director, Liza Chin, but he hardly thought that this year’s review was going to turn out any different than the one the year before. It was just a part of the job, prying, something he tried to remind himself, but he still found himself hesitate to take that first step forward toward the office at the end of the hall. The only thing that moved his feet forward was the knowledge that there would be hell to pay if he was late. The walk down the hall seemed to take forever, but it was an eternity that he did not want to end as he reached to knock on the door in front of him. “Come in,” the voice on the other side of the door called out in answer.

 

Milo took another deep breath and pushed open the door.

 

Liza Chin sat looking up at him impassively. She was younger than he expected, practically his own age. He wasn’t sure if he should be comforted by that or not. Milo took a step into the office and shut the door behind him. “I was told that you wished to see me for my performance review,” he said, careful to maintain eye contact.

 

The Deputy Director narrowed her eyes at him, an unreadable look on her face. “Please take a seat Agent Murdock.”

 

It was an easy command to follow, but the journey to the chair across from her desk still seemed to him a struggle. Somehow, he managed it and waited for her to begin to ask her questions. She shot him a small smile that was surely meant to be reassuring. In truth it made his stomach clench, but he managed not to dispel the lunch he had recently consumed. “You are not here for a performance review. I wanted to speak with you about a rather delicate matter,” she began. “What do you know about Poseidon?”

 

He tried to keep his face impassive. This was not a question that he expected to be asked. Everyone in the office had heard to name, but there were few that could give more than cursory information on the agent who bore it. Was this a test to determine if he was one of those few? If he was, did she really think that he would talk? “I’ve heard the name,” he replied cautiously. “I don’t know much, only that they were an agent that went rogue and started their own faction, 21 Void.” He longed to ask her why she had called him in under the guise of a performance review to ask him about an agent he didn’t even know but had learned long ago to proceed with caution when dealing with internal affairs.

 

The Deputy Director watched him closely for a moment. “That seems to be the most that my predecessor knew as well,” she finally said.

 

Milo relaxed a little. Apparently, she had not called him in to accuse him of working with Poseidon. He waited patiently for her to go on and explain what this meeting was about. There wasn’t long to wait. “He was also under the impression that Poseidon himself was no longer an agent. I disagree.”

 

Suddenly what Milo was doing here came into focus. “You want an analyst to help you discover who the mole is?” he asked carefully.

 

She smiled broadly. “I’m glad that you’re so quick on the uptake. That’s useful.” She sized him up for a moment and went on. “I’m putting together a taskforce to investigate Poseidon. I would like you to be on it.”

 

The fact that she was asking him to do this didn’t make any sense. “I’m the newest analyst,” he pointed out. “Wouldn’t you want someone with more experience?”

 

Surprisingly, the smile stayed firmly in place. “It is the fact that you are so new that makes me think you are the perfect person to do this. Just by the time you’ve been here, as well as your age, I know that you can’t be Poseidon. And given how low your security clearance is, you are unlikely to work for him either.” She paused for a long moment and surveyed him carefully. “The man that held this office before me proved to not be up to the task of ferreting out the rogue faction operating in our mist. I do not plan for the same to be said about me. I have plans, ambitions all my own, and not managing to catch the members of 21 Void would stand in the way of them. I need agents working for me that can get the job done. I believe that you might be one of them, if you feel up to the task.”

 

Stories of agents that had tried to take down Poseidon swirled in his mind. What she was proposing was dangerous, something he was unlikely to survive. “Everyone who has ever been tasked with bringing down Poseidon is dead.”

 

“This is true,” she admitted easily. “That is why I have a different approach in mind. Thus far, all the people who have looked into him have gone at him directly. My predecessor practically waved a giant red flag in his face to let it be known exactly what he was up to. The man was lucky to get away with his life. Harlan Gaines wasn’t so lucky.”

 

The name caught Milo off guard. He had heard talk about Harlan Gaines before, heard how he had been murdered by an international terrorist, but this was the first that he had ever heard of a connection between Gaines and Poseidon. “Was Deputy Director Gaines looking into Poseidon too?”

 

She nodded. “His investigation was the first, and he believed in the end that he was close. Unfortunately, he confided in no one who he suspected, so when he died, much of what he had found died with him. All we really know is that he suspected that Poseidon was an analyst. Why he thought this, I do not know. Gaines’s notes mysteriously disappeared when he died. My old boss thought that was because Gaines never wrote anything down; I think it is further proof that we have a spy in our mist.” She smiled widely. “Other than the ones we’re supposed to have at least.”

 

He digested that slowly. “What makes you think that?”

 

“It just doesn’t seem likely that he would have no record of his investigation, even a covert one. So where are the notes? What made him think that he was close? Why one of the analysts?”

 

That all seemed reasonable, but there were other things that she seemed to be forgetting. “Pardon me for contradicting you, Director,” he began.

 

“But we already know who killed Harlan Gaines?” she finished for him. A long moment passed as she surveyed him. “We do, I suppose. There is evidence, of course, but the motive is a little baffling. Why would Kaniel Outis kill a Deputy Director of the CIA? That doesn’t make any sense to me. As far as we can tell, Outis has never worked for the CIA, and he wasn’t under investigation at the time. In fact, he doesn’t even exist before he killed Gaines. There has to be some piece we are missing that explains why he killed Gaines. From what we know about what Gaines was up to prior to his death, the most logical explanation is that he was killed because of his investigation into Poseidon, and I’m just curious about what connection Outis might have to all this. That’s what I want your help with.”

 

He considered what she was telling him. “You think that Outis is 21 Void?” he asked uncertainly.

 

“Oh, I’m almost positive he is. What other reason would he have to kill a man looking into 21 Void? I want you to help me figure out what part he plays. I think our best bet would be to start with Gaines’s death and going out from there. It was the first time the CIA ever heard of Outis. How did a notable international terrorist manage to stay off our radar for so long?”

 

He couldn’t really explain that one, not off the top of his head. “Maybe he was just careful.”

 

She nodded, but it was clear her heart wasn’t in it. “No matter how he managed to stay hidden for so long, discovering his part in the murder might go a long way to letting us know who he is. I would like you to take a look at the photos that prove his guilt. There is something about them that doesn’t sit right with me.” She pulled out a photo from the debris on her desk and held it out it him. “Notice how he very carefully stands just out of view of the camera when he’s pulling the trigger?” she asked when he took it from her. “The only thing we can see is his arm holding the gun. That implies he knew where the camera was during the murder itself. Something that he conveniently forgets the second that it comes time to move the body. Why be careful not to be seen pulling the trigger only to get caught on camera moving the body?”

 

Milo examined the photo she had given him. Sure enough, the only part of the shooter’s body that could be seen was his arm. “You don’t think that Outis pulled the trigger?” he asked.

 

She looked taken aback when he looked up at her. Whatever she had expected his response to be, that wasn’t it. “Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. It’s hard to tell with what we have. That’s why I have someone looking closer at them. But I have a different task in mind for you. I want you to look into the other analysts and tell me what you find. Do you think that you could do that?”

 

“And if Poseidon finds out what I’m up to?” he asked, careful to keep the worry out of his voice.

 

“I had a thought about that actually. How would you like to come work for me?” The question was so out of left field that he couldn’t think of a response before she went on. “No one will question you looking into their files, private lives, etc. if you’re working for Internal Affairs. Not even Poseidon.”

 

He considered that. Working for Internal Affairs would offer him some protection, but there was still a chance that it could get him into trouble. “What do we do when the annual audit is over?” he asked.

 

“That will take a while yet. You’re forgetting that I’m new. The new head of Internal Affairs always does an extensive audit of personnel their first year. Everyone who has weathered the change in leadership before is expecting it, don’t worry. Once we’ve exhausted that excuse, we’ll come up with another, but for now, this is the best we can do. No one will question your transfer, again because I’m new. They’ll expect me to build my own staff going forward.”

 

That all sounded reasonable. “What would you like me to look for?”

 

“Everything. I want to know every detail about every person that works here, starting with the analysts. Internal Affairs comes with a much higher security clearance, so you’ll be able to dive into areas you didn’t even know existed before this.”

 

His ambition got the better of him. “When would I start?” he asked.

 

“Immediately. Go back and clear out your desk, report here tomorrow.”

 

It all seemed surreal as he stood and left the office. He had never thought that he would be in a position to spy on his co-workers before. Deep down, he was still a little afraid of what would happen if anyone realized what he was up to, but at least if something went wrong, he could say that he had died serving his country. That was what all of this was about right? He had to do what he could to bring down Poseidon, even if he lost his life in the process. And anyway, the Deputy Director was probably wrong that the rogue agent was someone he knew. What were the chances he had been working near the very person they had been looking for anyway?

 

He shook the thought from his mind as he reached his desk and began to pack it up. “That bad, huh?” the man that sat at the desk next to him asked with a laugh.

 

Milo looked over at him. “Does that mean that you’re going to miss me Ness?” he shot back.

 

The older man shrugged. “I was just beginning to warm up to you actually.”

 

Milo nodded as he continued packing up. “Well, I doubt you’ll like me much now. I’ve been transferred to internal affairs.”

 

All the analysts near enough to hear turned to look at him for a brief moment, but only Jacob Ness continued to stare long after the others had looked away. “I guess she was going to choose someone new,” he said after a long moment. “Nice knowing you I guess.”

 

Milo nodded again. He was unsure exactly what he was going to learn about these men and women he had worked with these last couple of years, but he was determined to do the best he could to be good at this new job, no matter what he discovered.


	2. Missing Documents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Milo gets his first lead.

Chapter 2: Missing Documents

Agent Milo Murdock examined the report he had compiled one last time. Not for the first time, he wondered if he should submit it. She’d said that she wanted to know everything that seemed odd, but all he’d found so far was just a missing document. Would Deputy Director Chin really care about something as trivial as that? He wasn’t so sure. Maybe if he did another pass over what he’d found.

 

The examination of the personnel files of his former coworkers had proved to be a relatively fruitless process. At first, all of the analysts seemed to be on the up and up, nothing seemed odd. Everything he had found was so mundane, just your everyday life events: marriages, births, things like that. Nothing that the CIA needed to be worried about. In general, they understood that you were going to have a life outside of work, maybe even meet someone and settle down. As long as you reported it, got permission to read-in your spouse when the time came, no one cared if you got married. It was the hiding it that got people into trouble. That was the rule: you can never try to hide anything from the CIA. As long as you followed that rule, there was nothing to worry about. Nothing in any of the files sent up any red flags. It wasn’t until Milo decided to flip through the files one last time, this time dividing them by marital status: single, divorced, and married, that anything caught his attention.

 

The first two piles didn’t yield anything that he hadn’t caught the first few times he’d looked through them. There were a couple of home purchases and a request for a new cover job, but nothing that raised any red flags. It was the third stack that got his attention. Each personnel file for a married individual was supposed to have the same documents in addition to the usual ones found in the files of everyone else: background check information for the spouse, permission form to read-in said spouse, and a copy of the marriage license, but when he went through them, he noticed that there was a form missing from one of the files. It was the first lead he had gotten, and as trivial as it was, it required further investigation.

 

Milo had spent days after that trying to find the form in question. At first, the error hadn’t alarmed him much. A missing document from a paper file wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t unheard of in the transition from analog to digital for something to go missing or for a paper copy not to be retained. As long as there was a digital record, they were fine. He looked for it everywhere, first in the digital records and then with the records’ office itself, thinking maybe the form had just been mislabeled or something. But the record did not exist. And that was alarming. Documents weren’t allowed to just disappear anymore than the employees of the CIA were allowed to lie about their personal lives. He was convinced that the form had to be somewhere up until his conversation with the diligent record keepers. That was when the whole thing had gotten a little weirder.

 

Milo glanced down at his report and made up his mind to report what he had found after all. Even if it turned out to be nothing, he should at least bring it up. His boss would be able to say whether this was something that needed to be looked into further or not. He walked toward her office and knocked. “Come in,” the voice of Deputy Director Chin sounded through the door.

 

Carefully, Milo pulled open the door and entered. All he could hope was that this didn’t sound completely trivial to anyone else but him. When he entered, his new boss sat behind her desk, looking at him curiously as he shut the door behind him. “I’m sure this is nothing, but I think I may have found something,” he said, clutching his report tightly.

 

“That was fast,” she said with a small smile. “I was expecting that a through investigation would take a little longer.”

 

Her words made him uncomfortable. Though he had known that she wanted him to dig deep, he hadn’t quite gotten that far yet. Here he was, reporting in, and he hadn’t done much more than just look over the personnel files of the analysts. The realization that something was missing from one of the files had distracted him somewhat. He cleared his throat and struggled to find a way to explain. “I… uh… I have only really had time to look at the personnel files,” he said carefully. She raised an eyebrow in question but didn’t interrupt. “I thought that would be a good jumping off point, see if there were any red flags and build from there.”

 

“I see,” she said slowly. It was clear that she was trying very hard to mask her annoyance.

 

“I assumed it would only take a day or two to get through them,” he struggled to explain. She looked at him expectantly. “I found something,” he offered, her expression remaining unchanged. “Or rather, I didn’t find something in one of the files, but I’m not sure if it’s much of an issue. I wanted to run it by you before I spent anymore time looking into it.” He hoped that would endear him to her a bit more.

 

After a long moment, she sighed and gestured for him to sit down. “Okay, explain to me what you found.”

 

Milo crossed over to her desk and sat. Where was he supposed to begin? “I was going through the personnel files, and everything seemed fine, no red flags. But then I noticed that the one of the files is missing the permission form to read-in the wife of one of the analysts. At first, I assumed that the paper copy had been lost, after all, he’s been married for a few years now, but I couldn’t find a digital copy either. So, I went down to the records office and talked to them in the hopes they had a way to retrieve the document, but according to them, it doesn’t exist.”

 

She was silent for a long moment, longer than he would have preferred. Surely a prolonged silence was not a good sign. “And which analyst is this?” she finally asked, her tone implying that she was considering her words very carefully.

 

“Jacob Ness.”

 

Her face tightened a little, but she held her tongue. If the name meant anything to her, she did not share her thoughts with him. After a moment, he continued. “It merely struck me as odd at first,” he said. “I mean, he’s been married for years, of course he would have read her in. I assume he just forgot to get the form filled out and signed. It’s an easy fix.”

 

“If it was an accident,” she said, her voice suspiciously even. They could have been talking about the weather. “What do we know about the wife?”

 

Milo shuffled through the file until he found the basic background check that had been run on her. “Not much. She’s a doctor. Born in Chicago, decent credit score, no obvious criminal record. But then again, they wouldn’t have done very deep until he asked to read her in.”

 

“I’d like you to do a more extensive one regardless,” she said. “I want to know everything we can about his wife. There may be a reason that he didn’t get permission read her in.”

 

Milo nodded. “I wasn’t sure if you would think this was worthy of investigation.”

 

“As far as I’m concerned, everything is worthy of investigation. If it turns out to be nothing, then at the very least we will have fixed an oversight. That is part of what these annual reviews are for anyway. Did you find anything else?”

 

Milo shook his head. “Okay then. If weren’t any red flags with any of the other analysts, for now we may be able to move on to another department. But look into Ness, closely. I want to know everything about this mysterious wife of his. And I mean everything.”

 

“You got it boss. I’ll start now.” With that he rose and left the office to continue his investigation.

 

Once he was sitting at his desk, he typed the wife’s name into the system and sat staring at the computer screen for a full five minutes before rising again and walking back to the Deputy Director’s office. “We have a problem,” he said as soon as she told him to enter.

 

She shot him a skeptical look as he took a deep breath and began. “I got some kind of weird alert when I looked up the wife. Her record is sealed for some reason.”

 

“Sealed? By who?”

 

“The State Department. What should I do?”

 

She sat there for a long moment considering him. “I suppose we need to get in touch with them, see what this is about. What did you say the wife’s name was again?”

 

“Sara Scofield according to the marriage license. Though she might have taken his name when they got married, I thought I’d try looking into her maiden name first, see what comes up.”

 

“Sounds like a plan. I will call the State Department, see if we can get a meeting to discuss what they have on the wife. You see if you can find anything about her in the meantime. Maybe there will be something to give us a clue as to what she may have gotten mixed up with. And if Ness is aware of it.”

 

Milo nodded and exited the office as she was picking up the phone.


	3. Kellerman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized after the fact that I made an error in the last chapter with where Kellerman works in season five. Sorry about that. I went back and corrected the error and will try to do better in the future.
> 
> This chapter is kind of short, only about a thousand words long, but it is kind of serving as a transition into the story as a whole. Hopefully yoy like it.

Chapter 3: Kellerman

Milo was already certain that he did not like the man that was sitting across from him and the meeting had just begun. Maybe that was because Paul Kellerman had the kind of face that you just wanted to punch. At least, that was what Milo wanted to do, knock that smug smile off his face. “Deputy Director Chin wanted me to thank you for agreeing to share information with us,” he said, trying his best to be pleasant.

 

“Always willing to help our friends at the CIA. What exactly can I help you with?” Even his tone sounded smug.

 

“What can you tell me about Sara Scofield?”

 

Milo had spent his entire CIA career behind a computer, but even he was capable of noticing that the name had meant something to the man. Despite that, Kellerman responded, “The name doesn’t ring a bell.”

 

Milo had been prepared for that. Despite what the head of the State Department said, he had no intention of helping out the CIA, not unless he was forced too. If Milo wanted to walk away with the information he had come for, he was going to have to work for it. He pulled out the little bit he had found out for himself. All of it was completely innocuous, so he passed it over. “This is all I have been able to find out. Anytime I try to dig deeper, I get blocked by the State Department. Does she work for you?”

 

Kellerman barely glanced at the documents laying on the table between them. “I don’t know; does she?”

 

“No,” Milo replied. “She works as a doctor at a clinic in Ithaca, NY. But she must have some connection to the State Department if her records are sealed. So, what is it?”

 

The man narrowed his eyes and surveyed Milo carefully. There seemed to be something simmering beneath the surface that he was not anxious to share. “What is it to you? Why is the CIA interested in Sara?”

 

The fact that he had only used her first name did not escape Milo’s notice. “I thought you said that you didn’t know her.”

 

“How exactly can I help you Agent Murdock?”

 

“I already told you; we need to do a background check on her. Now, how is she connected to the State Department?”

 

Kellerman answered that question with silence. He sat there staring at Milo until the latter thought that the conversation was over. It wasn’t until he had begun to rise that Kellerman spoke again. “Have you ever heard of The Company?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Of course you haven’t; you’re a child. It was an origination that operated both inside and outside of the government for many years, decades in fact. Members of the company were everywhere, working on their own agenda that did not always line up with that of the government of the United States. Sara was part of a team that helped to bring them down. In exchange, her records were sealed as were those of the rest of the group.” He sat back in his chair significantly and gazed at Milo. “I showed you mine, now show me yours. What is your interest in Sara Tancredi?”

 

“Tancredi?” Milo asked before he could stop himself.

 

Obviously, this was information that he was meant to have by the disappointed look on Kellerman’s face. “Her maiden name,” he said slowly.

 

Milo refused to show how much the man was getting under his skin. He stared down the Director of the State Department and went on. “All we really had to go on was her marriage license, which said Scofield. Further inquiry was made difficult by her records being sealed.” Even as he said it, there was something that struck him as odd, but he pushed the thought from his mind for the time being. “Clearly we need more extensive information. What was her connection to this ‘company’ you spoke of?”

 

Kellerman shook his head, a small smile on his face. “Oh no you don’t. You don’t get out of answering my question. If you want more information, you’ll have to make it worth my while. What’s the interest in a doctor in upstate New York?”

 

The problem was that Milo wasn’t really sure what he was allowed to say about his investigation. He considered what he could share. Eventually, he decided to go with the truth, or at least a part of it. “We’re just conducting yearly reviews on all our employees, standard stuff. We found that the background check for Dr. Scofield was missing from her husband’s file, and we’re trying to rectify the oversight. I’m sure that you can understand.”

 

But the look on his face said very plainly that he did not understand. The look was only there for a moment before it was gone again. “Of course,” Kellerman said. “I’ll make sure that you have access to anything you need.”

 

 

Milo returned to the office, his head buzzing with information. Something was going on. A name kept echoing in his head. Tancredi. That was the name that Kellerman had used. He had called her Sara Tancredi, said it was her maiden name, but there was no record in the CIA files that Ness’s wife had ever had that last name. Surely there should have been some record of her name at birth somewhere. He sat down behind his desk and pulled up the digital copy of the file. Carefully, he reviewed each document for the name he had been given. Everything he found said Scofield, even the basic background check that was run when her and Ness first got married. He paused for a moment to wonder what it might mean. This meant something; he could feel it. There was something that he wasn’t supposed to know lurking just outside of his reach, but he was going to figure it out somehow.

 

With a furtive look over his shoulder, he pulled up the system to run a background check of his own and did another search, this time with Dr. Scofield’s maiden name and began to read what he found.


End file.
